Friday, July 28, 2006

From Jim Elliott #3


I regarded his sort of stuff with great annoyance at the time, even tho it was only done once each show with volunteers from the audience.

About this same time my father had our elephant act booked with a Barnes-Carruthers Fair Unit that appeared in front of the grandstand usually for the run of the fair.
One morning we awoke to find all the Holter stuff parked in the infield. They had come in for one day with a show that featured racing camels, racing ostriches, etc. and various other things
that could be unloaded, exhibited, reloaded and out of town with a minimum of complication. I was delighted to see Wally Ross again.
My favorite event was the camel race. Three camels were led out onto the track and they
managed to have the audience coerce the town's Mayor, Police Chief and Fire Chief into being the riders in this event, one lap around the track.
At the signal one camel took off, another whirled around and headed the opposite direction while the third went over the fence and across the infield with "His Honor", doing that "dance of death" that camels do.
I'm sure I have laughed louder and longer in my 71 years but I don't know when it would have been.
Within an hour after the show they were loaded and gone on to another fair.

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